Mobile level-luffing crane



Oct- 18, 196 c. G. HACKENBERGER 3,279,521

MOBILE, LEVEL-LUFFING CRANE 5 SheetsSheet 1 Filed May 18, 1964 INVENTOR.

: CLAUS e. HACKENBERGER ATTORNEYS Oct. 18, 1966 c. e. HACKENBERGER 3,279,621

MOBILE LEVELLUFFING CRANE 5 Sheets- Sheet 2 Filed May 18, 1964 GLAUS G. HACKEN BERGER INVENTOR.

AT TORNE Y5 Oct. 18, 1966 c. G. HACKENBERGER 3,279,621

MOBILE LEVEL-LUFFING CRANE 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed May 18, 1964 CLAUS G. HAGKENBERGER INVENTOR.

ATTORNEYS Oct. 18, 1966 c. G. HACKENBERGER 3,279,521

MOBILE LEVEL-LUFFING CRANE Filed May 18, 1964 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 CLAUS G. HACKENBERGER I INVENTOR.

ATTORNEYS MOBILE LEVEL-LUFFING CRANE Filed May 18, 1964 ll FIG IO 5 Sheets-Shet 5 FIG H Boom FIG I 2 Luffing Hoist Training F CLAUS G. HACKENBERGER INVENTOR.

BYE

ATTORNEYS United States Patent C) 3,279,621 MOBILE LEVEL-LUFFING. CRANE Claus G. Hackenberger, Tacoma, Wash, assignor to Tacoma Boatbuilding Co., Inc., Tacoma, Wash, a corporatiou of Washington Filed May 18, 1964, Ser. No. 368,173 3 Claims. (Cl. 212-35) This invention relates to cranes, particularly one which adapts itself to use either as a mobile or as a stationary unit, and for its general object aims to perfect a crane of the type having its boom mounted for training motion and for both vertical swing and level-luffing motions.

A particular object of the invention is to provide a crane of the above type which will give a high lift and yet has its parts so engineered that the crane is enabled to perform its lufiing function on a comparatively low level, thus adapting the crane to use, say in a mine shaft, where a low ceiling is encountered. Ancillary to the above object the invention aims to provide a crane which can be converted with ease and expedition so as to luff at either of two levels, selectively.

As a still further particular object the invention purposes to provide a crane which, for storage purposes, permits a lay-back beyond the in limit of a working luff and, when so positioned, has an unusally low height.

The invention has the yet additionalobject of providing a crane in which each of the operations of hoisting, training, luffing and boom-lifting is hydraulically powered, and wherein no more than a single such-operation can be performed at one time so as to permit use of a constant delivery pump as a pressure source for all of the hydraulically powered units.

The invention additionally aims to provide a crane having lock means in its hydraulic system positively precluding the boom from creeping in either of its lufiing directions, or in a lowering direction, when the manually operated valves which control these movements occupy a neutral position.

These and yet additional objects and. advantages in view will appear and be understood in the course of the following description and claims. The invention consists in the novel construction and in the adaptation and combination of parts hereinafter described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a side elevational view illustrating a crane constructed to embody preferred teachings of the present invention. The view incorporates, in phantom, a showing of a wheeled vehicle on which the crane is mounted, and represents by broken lines the position occupied by a root section of the cranes boom or jib when the crane is lutfed in.

FIG. 2 is a top plan view thereof.

FIG. 3 is a side elevational view showing the parts in the positions occupied when the crane has been converted so as to work at the lower of two permitted lufling levels.

FIG. 4 is a side elevational view showing the parts in the positions occupied when the crane is stored.

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary transverse vertical sectional view drawn to an enlarged scale on line 5-5 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary longitudinal vertical sectional view on line 66 of FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 is a fragmentary horizontal sectional view drawn to an enlarged scale on line 77 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 8 is a fragmentary longitudinal vertical sectional view on line 88 of FIG. 7.

FIG. 9 is a fragmentary transverse vertical sectional view .drawn to an enlarged scale on line 9--9 of FIG. 8.

FIG. 10 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view on line 1010 of FIG. 7.

FIG. 11 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view on line 11-11 of FIG. 10; and

FIG. 12 is a schematic illustration of the cranes hydraulic circuitry.

Referring to said drawings, the numeral 10 designates the frame of a rubber-tired utility vehicle powered by an engine 11 and having a suitable drivers station 12. Provided by the engine is a power take-off driving the pump P for a hydraulic system employed to operate the crane of the present invention. Controls for such hydraulic system are located convenient to the drivers station.

A ring 13 rigidly surmounts the vehicle frame in a centered position between the front ground wheels 14, and journaled from said ring and by a king pin 15 for rotation about the center of the ring as an axis is a bull wheel 16. The ring surrounds only the lower part of the bull wheel and has an internal groove 17. In the plane of this groove the rim of the bull wheel is pierced at equidistant intervals of its circumference with radial drill-holes. Rotatively adjustable spindles 18 fit the drillholes. Eccentric ends 19 of these spindles project beyond the bull wheel, and rollers 20 are journaled on said ends 19 to perform the function of thrust bearings by tracking on the top and bottom flanking walls of the groove.

The bull wheel serves as the mounting base or carriage, as it will be hereinafter termed, for the crane. Controlled training of such carriage is provided by an endless chain 21 anchored within its length to the rim of the carriage and passing over a sprocket wheel 22. The sprocket wheel lies diametrically opposite the chain anchor when the bull wheel occupies a normal centered position between the two extremes of its permitted training motion, and is driven through reduction gearing from a reversing hydraulic motor 23. A portion of the carriage exposed above the ring 13 presents an exterior groove in which the chain is received. For the anchoring of the chain (see FIG. 9), a pin 24 connects the chain to an eyed lug 25 which is bolted to the carriage.

Made an integral part of the carriage and located in spaced paralleling relation at opposite sides of a diameter thereof are two ribs 26. Said diameter coincides with the vehicles longitudinal median line when the carriage occupies said centered position between the two extremes of its permitted training motion. The ribs are traversed by two pivot pins 27 and 28 which parallel one another on longitudinally spaced horizontal axes. Pin 27 is located somewhat to the rear of the carriages training axis on a level above the level occupied by the pin 28. Each of its tow ends are fitted in a respective bearing box 30 (FIG. 7) which is rigid with a related one of the two ribs. A rear lufling link 3-1 for the crane has its lower end fulcrumed upon such pin, occupying the space between the bearing boxes.

Pin 28 lies well to the front of the carriages training axis and serves as the fulcrum for a front lufling link.

Such front link is comprised of joined upper and lower sections 32 and 33, respectively. The two sections are normally held in an in-line relation by two transversely extending horizontal coupling pins 34 and 35 which are removably inserted through registering holes provided at the two ends of lapping portions of the two sections. Upon removal of the coupling pins, the sections can be jack-knifed about a transverse horizontal pivot pin 36 located between the coupling pins into the position in which the sections are represented in FIG..3.

The lapping portion of the upper section 32 is forked and straddles the lower section 33. The fulcrumed end of the latter section is also forked and straddles the ribs 26. Webs 37 and 38 extending between the fork arms of the upper section serve as stops against which a face plate 39 of the lower section bears at two end limits of permitted pivotal movement, namely when the two sections are in-line and when they are jack-knifed. The lower section also presents a nose portion 40 which shoulders against a bar 41 to augment the web 38.

42 denotes a double-acting hydraulic jackfor lulfing the lufiing links. The jack occupies the space between the two ribs 26. An eye at one end of the jack fits over the pin 36 and an eye at the other end engages a wrist pin 43 which is carried by the carriage in a position diametrically opposite the fulcrum pin 28.

The cranes jib or boom is an articulated structure comprised of a root section 44 and a reach section 45 which are joined one to the other and to the upper end of the forward lufiing link by a pivot pin 46. The after end of the root section connects with the upper end of the aft lufling link by a pivot pin 47. Vertical swing motion of the reach section about the center of the pivot pin 46 I as an axis is afforded by a pair of single-acting hydraulic jacks 48, one located at one side and the other at the other side of the boom in positions spaced below and generally paralleling the reach section. The ends of the jacks connect by wrist pins 50 and 51 with crank arms 49 and 59 provided by the boom sections.

Sheaves 52 and 53 to accommodate a hoist line 54 are journal-mounted at the two ends of the boom for rotation about a terminal pin 55 and the pivot 47, respectively. Said hoist line passes from the sheave 53 over the winding drum 56 of a winch. The winch is powered through worm and worm-wheel reduction gearing from a reversible hydraulic motor 57. A platform 58 for the mounting of said hydraulic winch is made rigid with the aft'lufling link.

The mobility of the crane dictates that the hydraulic pump P have a limited output and the hydraulic circuit is thus designed so that no more than a single hydraulic power unit can be operated at one time. Four 4-way manually operated control valves 60, 61, 62 and 63 are provided, placed convenient to an operator occupying the drivers station of the vehicle. These valves are es sentially 3-position valves \albeit providing greater or lesser flow depending upon the degree to which the valve is opened. In its neutral position each valve spool provides a communicating connection between two front-side ports of the valve body. A supply line connects the pump Pwith one of such front-side ports of the valve 60. The other three valves are then connected in series, which is to say that the other front-side port of valve 60 feeds to one of the front-side ports of valve 61, the other front-side port of valve 61 feeds to one front-side port of valve 62, .the other front-side port of valve 62 feeds to one front-side port of valve 63, and the latters other front-side port returns to a reservoir R from which ing motor 23. A flow-choking valve 65 is introduced in one of these lines.

From the two back-side ports of the control valve 62, fluid lines extend to the two ends of the lufiing jack 42. These lines likewise include a flow-choking valve, as66, and have'counter-balance valves 67. The counter-balance valves, which are essentially pressure-opened check valves, permit free flow from the pressure source to the cylinder of the jack but allow flow in the reverse, or return, direction only when subjected to an opening pressure of predetermined intensity. The required pressure is somewhat below that which exists in the pressure side of the system and is applied through a pilot line 68, wherefore it will be seen that the counter-balance valves perform the function of a hydraulic lock by precluding seepage from; the, jack cylinder during periods when the lufling links are immobile.

The single-acting boom jack 48 is extended so as to lift the reach section 45 by delivery of pressure fluid from one of the two back-side ports of the control valve 63. Like the flow lines to the training motor and the lufiing jacks, this flow is choked by a valve 70. Gravity influence serves to lower the reach section and is controlled from the valve 63 by a pilot line 71 acting to open a non-return check valve 72.

Other than for the training movement, which will have been clear from the description, the several movements to which the crane admits will be apparent from an inspection of the several positions in whichthe crane is shown in the drawings. It is here pointed out that a normally disconnected backstay is provided which is arranged to be hooked to the rear end of the boomjas a step preliminary to .jack-knifiing the front lufling link. Designated by 73 and shown by broken lines in FIG..1,

this backstay keeps the two sections of such lufiing link from collapsing when the two pins 34 and 35 are withdrawn, permitting the jack-knifing to be thereupon accomplished by the expedient of contracting the luffing jack 42. Illustrated in phantom in FIG. 2, the vehicle is or may be fitted with the usual outrigger feet.74mova-ble into engagement with the ground to stabilize the vehicle.

It is our intention that no limitations are to be implied from the foregoing detailed description of my now-preferred illustrated embodiment, and that the hereto annexed claims be given the broadest interpretation to which the employed language admits.

What I claim is:

1. A crane of the character described comprising, in combination with a mounting base, a carriage journaled for training rotation on the base, an articulated boom comprised of pivotally connected root and reach sections, forward and aft upright lufling links pivoted by lower ends to the carriage and by upper ends to the forward end and the aft end, respectively, of the root section of the boom to support the boom for level-luffing travel, the lufling links generally paralleling one another and having a swing ;travel.moving their upper endsapproximately equal distances fore and aft of a perpendicular raised from their respective lower-end pivots, a hoist line for the boom, sheaves. guiding said hoist line, and

power means for turning the carriage in its training move-.

ment, for swinging the links to luff the 'boom arm, and for operating the hoist line, the forward lufling link comprising two pivotally joined sections, and. having means for setting the articulating sections in either anin-line or an angular relationship,selectively.

2. A craneaccording to claim 1, the means for setting the link sections in their in-line relationship comprising at least one keeper pin arranged to be removably inserted through registering holes. provided in lapping portions of said two link sections.

3. A crane according to claim 2,means being provided for stabilizing the forward link against a sudden collapse as the l tll Sections are jack-knife between in-line and pln.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS FOREIGN PATENTS 1,045,281 11/1951 France. 1,172,981 10/1958 France.

Garson 212-59 5 EVON C. BLUNK, Primary Examiner.

et a1 212-58 X SAMUEL F. COLEMAN, Examiner.

Balogh et a1 21235 A. L. LEVINE, A. H. NIELSEN, Assistant Examiners. 

1. A CRANE OF THE CHARACTER DESCRIBED COMPRISING, IN COMBINATION WITH A MOUNTING BASE, A CARRIAGE JOURNALED FOR TRAINING ROTATION ON THE BASE, AN ARTICULATED BOOM COMPRISING OF PIVOTALLY CONNECTED ROOT AND REACH SECTIONS, FORWARD AND AFT UPRIGHT LUFFING LINKS PIVOTED BY LOWER ENDS TO THE CARRIAGE AND BY THE UPPER ENDS TO THE FORWARD END AND THE AFT END, RESPECTIVELY, OF THE ROOT SECTION OF THE BOOTM TO SUPPORT THE BOOM FOR LEVEL-LUFFING TRAVEL, THE LUFFING LINKS GENERALLY PARALLELING ONE ANOTHER AND HAVING A SWING TRAVEL MOVING THEIR UPPER ENDS APPROXIMATELY EQUAL DISTANCES FORE AND AFT OF A PERPENDICULAR RAISED FROM THEIR RESPECTIVE LOWER-END PIVOTS, A HOIST LINE FOR THE BOTTOM, SHEAVES GUIDING SAID HOIST LINE, AND POWER MEANS FOR TURNING THE CARRIAGE IN ITS TRAINING MOVEMENT, FOR SWINGING THE LINKS TO LUFF THE BOOM ARM, ANS FOR OPERATING THE HOIST LINE, THE FORWARD LUFFING LINK COMPRISING TWO PIVOTALLY JOINED SECTIONS, IN EITHER AN IN-LINE FOR SETTING THE ARTICULATING SECTIONS IN EITHER AN IN-LINE OR AN ANGULAR RELATIONSHIP, SELECTIVELY. 